34: Broken in the Aftermath [Crossover with non-canon story]
LOCATION: Stalliongrad
DATE: December 28th
[Perspective: Risk Reward]
I dug through the ruins of the house with False and the creature that caused its destruction. It was slow going, and there was now a high likelihood that the guards would be back soon. Asylum had gone off to find Arrell, leaving just the three of us to try and find Nimble.
I carefully levitated a large rock out of the way on the northern side of the house, before hearing an excited shout come from the opposite side.
“I see him!” The voice was Cinder’s. I quickly put down the chunk of masonry and ran across, finding Cinder carefully extracting a familiar small earth pony from the wreckage. I immediately activated my magic, lifting Nimble and a fair amount of rocks up from the pile. I let a smile grace my features as I heard False sigh with relief.
“Got him!” I cried out, the wounded colt finding his way onto my back, minus many of the rocks.
“Now we need to get out of here before more guards arrive,” False said, looking behind her cautiously.
“Yup yup!” Cinder replied, “We need to bamboozle out of here before they show up and I am forced to make them eat things that cause undesirable status effects!”
The two of us gave him a blank look, knowing for sure it would be a third if Nimble was conscious.
“Exactly,” the mysterious Pokémon said craftily, giggling to himself. “Let’s vacate this undesirable location!” He looked directly in my eyes. “It would be undesirable for us to stay.”
I groaned, putting a hoof to my face in a well-earned gesture to the Pokémon. “Can you stop saying ‘undesirable’?”
“I can,” the Pokémon replied, “but the question is, ‘should I?’”
All he got from me was a glare.
“So it would be undesirable for me to continue?” Cinder intoned.
“Keep it up, and I’ll do something ‘undesirable’ to you!” False broke in.
“I’m not sure if you were mocking me with saying the word that I have used in such undesirable situations or it was just a ridiculous mistake,” the Pokémon replied with a grin, before turning away from the direction that the guard whom he had caused to breathe fire had run. “Shall we?”
Giving up on the topic, I just began walking, careful not to jostle the unconscious colt splayed across my back. False followed along to my left, and Cinder to my right.
“Oh yeah,” Cinder began, causing me to automatically wince before he continued. “You should have Nimble eat this.” He tossed me a blue berry that he got from who-knows-where. “It should make him feel a bit better.” He paused. “I think.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You just nearly killed him, and now you’re trying to feed him stuff?”
“Well, I haven’t used one yet, and it only heals 100 hp, and I’m not sure how much you have or if it will work or if it will even affect him at all,” Cinder said. “Zombies are healed by damage potions, after all.”
Part of me wanted to not trust him, but really, by this point I wasn’t sure if Nimble was going to live much longer anyway. I levitated the berry to the colt’s mouth, and surprisingly, he unconsciously bit down on it, swallowing it whole.
The Pokémon stood watching, evidently curious. I opened my mouth to ask him if he knew how long it would take, but was interrupted by the colt on my back taking a deep breath.
I looked back at him, noting that many of the bruises and scrapes he had procured were gone. The burns hadn’t healed, but the change in his condition was remarkable.
“...how did that...you know what, I’m not going to question it,” I sighed. False was equally surprised by the sudden healing. “We need to get out of this city. The longer we stay here, the bigger the chance the guards will find us.”
“That situation could either end with us emerging victorious over a city’s worth of guard, or us in some...” He paused as he looked straight into False’s eyes as I realized what was coming. “Undesirable situations.”
I fought the urge to scream. False didn’t even fight it.
“But in all seriousness,” the creature began, me feeling surprised that it even knew the word, “I need to get back outside as well.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, wondering why for a brief second before he explained.
“My travelling companion forbade me coming in here,” the creature said with an aura of carelessness.
“And you didn’t...actually, never mind,” False began before cutting herself off. “You disobeying orders doesn’t surprise me.”
Cinder let out a terribly staged gasp, seemingly hurt, “False! How could you say something like that?”
“Very easily.”
“Touché...” the Fire-type said, bringing one of his paws up to his face, apparently pondering her answer.
I broke into the conversation at that point. “Look, this has been fun and all...actually, not really. But still, whether you have to leave or not, I’d suggest getting away before Arrell comes back. If he sees you up and about, he’s not gonna wait for an explanation.”
“I see the logic in that, and I think it would be best if I would now take my leave from this remarkably fun league of ponies you found yourself in,” the Pokémon said with a flourish. “Also, when you see Arrell, ask him if the narwhal bacons at Tuesday.”
“Ask him if the what does what when?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You heard me!” Cinder said, going up to a seemingly random pony and pulling on his wing, the two of them disappearing in a cloud of brown smoke, followed by a familiar giggle.
False and I just looked at each other. “...did that just happen?” she asked.
“Whether it did or not, I’m going to just forget it ever did.”
[Perspective: Asylum]
I could say it took me a while to find Arrell, but really, it wasn’t that hard. I was flying around when a pony suddenly crashed through the wall of a building nearby, unconscious. It startled me, but after a moment, I flew around the building to see Arrell walking away.
I was about to approach him, but I hesitated. He didn’t seem to be particularly happy, nor did he seem sad. He seemed angry, and anger was the one emotion I had seen him in and been scared of.
Finally, I gathered my courage and flew up to him. “Arrell?”
He sighed in annoyance. “What do you want?”
“Um...are you okay?”
“No. Go away.”
I blinked. Go away? “Arrell, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“But you just said you’re not okay...”
“I’m not.”
“Then how can nothing be wrong if you’re not okay?”
He whipped around and glared at me. “Magic! I don’t know! It just is!”
“Arrell, calm down!” I stomped a hoof. “Why are you so angry?”
“Oh, right. You weren’t there.” He paused, and I swear he rolled his eyes. “Cinder was possessed by his god and tried to kill me, and long story short, Nimble got hurt instead. So I freaked out, killed Cinder, and flew off.”
I shook my head. “Cinder’s alive, Arrell. And he isn’t possessed anymore. Last I saw him, he was helping Risk and False try to dig Nimble out of the rubble.” I sighed. “Why did you fly away?”
“Why wouldn’t I have flown away? I killed someone!”
“You’ve killed tons of ponies and Windigoes already!” I yelled. I thought he’d have a response, but all he did was go quiet, staring at the ground. “...Arrell?”
“...it’s getting easier.”
“What?”
He raised his head to look at me. “Back in the Dusk of Ice and Fire, most of my kills were accidental. I had to force myself to deliberately kill Bloodbath himself.” He sat down. “Then, with the Rancid Windigoes, I never thought twice about all of my kills. I didn’t even try to just knock them out. Sure, some could argue that they were honestly evil and deserved it, and that it was self-defense. Honestly, it’s that argument that's kept me from freaking out about it during the days after.”
I tilted my head, confused as to where he was going with this.
“But then I went and deliberately, knowingly, killed a fellow human! What’s gonna happen next? Am I going to level Ponyville the next time I have a temper tantrum?” He looked both scared and angry. "Sure, it's all been self-defense so far, but how long's that gonna last? If it keeps getting easier and easier to kill, how do I know I'm not gonna wake up one day, deciding to test just how easy it is? What if I murder someone who wasn't against me? Who doesn't deserve it?!"
“Arrell, stop!” I shouted. “You didn’t kill Cinder, and you’re not going to turn into a monster like you think you are!”
He stared right at me. “Asylum, I know I’m not gonna become a monster.”
“Well, then-”
“I already am one.”
[Perspective: Arrell]
“No, seriously. You suck, I hate you, and I don’t care if you’re a god, I still say I hope you rot in hell!”
Styx just sighed, taking my verbal assault (weak as it was) with a grain of salt. The goddess didn’t seem angry, upset, or anything similar. She just seemed like she was waiting for me to finish so she could get on with something.
“Are you done?” Yep, she was waiting for me to finish.
“Yes.”
“Good.” She walked around me, leaning against the tree I had chosen to sleep under. The others were a distance away, sleeping in a tent. I hadn’t spoken to any of them, save for Asylum, since the incident with Cinder. “Now, do you understand why I wanted you to come here?”
“To traumatize me?”
She chuckled. “No. I needed you to find your inner rage. Your adventures in Smooth Grove helped, as well as got you the Fine Rock, but it wouldn’t be until you got here that you truly unleashed your anger.”
“Why here?”
“Stalliongrad is a city of racism, and you are a different race. As soon as you walked in here, I knew you’d end up getting mad at somepony. The Cyndaquil merely helped.”
“Did you plan for him, too?”
She shook her head. “Not for the fight, but for the meeting, yes. I had a feeling if you two met, it would end badly.”
My eye twitched. “...you wanted it to end badly?”
“The worse things get, the angrier you get. And the angrier you get, the stronger you become. You need to be strong to win this game.”
“What if I don’t want to win this game for some crazy-ass goddess who goes out of her way to traumatize me?!”
“Then I’ll send you back to Earth.”
I laughed darkly. “Lady, I’m not one of those cliché people from your everyday human-in-Equestria story. I’m not an orphan, and my parents didn’t hate me. I had friends, even if they were pretty much all over the Internet. I had goals and dreams; plans for the future. No girlfriend - or boyfriend - but I was getting there. I won’t say my life was perfect, because it wasn’t, but it was good. The only reason I chose to come here was because it was a split-second decision and I was bored, and the only reason I haven’t asked you to send me home yet is because it’s freaking Equestria.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that if you sent me back home, I personally wouldn’t care. Everything would go back to normal. I can adapt.” I sat down. “So come on. Send me home. Or do one thing for me, and I’ll actually start playing this game to win.” Not like I know how to play to win anyway, though...
“Oh? And what would that be?” She seemed disinterested. Either she was already planning to say no and send me back home, or she was expecting me to ask for something trivial. Too bad.
“Leave me alone.”
That caught her attention. “Excuse me?”
I stood up and glared at her. My hoof began to glow. “I want you to leave me alone. Stop pushing me towards places to get me angry, and stop setting up obstacles for me. Just let me go about doing whatever the hell I want to do.”
“That’s not how chess is played.”
“Look, you wanted me to be the king of your side. If I recall, once the king dies, you lose. And you’re literally sending me into situations where death is certain if I didn’t have help. That’s not a very good way to play chess.”
She matched my glare. “I play chess however I want.”
“Look, you can’t worm out of this. If you send me home, you lose the chess game. If you leave me here, I do what I feel like doing rather than what you push me towards. I will ignore any messages you give me. I’m not a masochist.”
She leaned right down in my face. “Listen, Arrell. I brought you here. I make the rules for you. You are my chess piece, and nothing more! Do you understand?”
THWACK!
Styx stumbled back, clutching her face. The glow around my hoof faded away.
“Focus Punch,” I belatedly warned her.
She glared back at me, even more harshly than before. She tried to cover her face with her hand, but I saw a drip of blood coming from beneath. “Chess pieces don’t attack their players.”
I simply laid back down for some sleep as an alternative for flipping her off. “I play chess however I want.”
I heard no response. When I looked back up at where she was after a few minutes, I saw that she was gone.
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Good God do I hate that guy (cyndaquile)
The firs thing I thought was
Huh, that rhymed!
2640340
His purpose is kind of to be hated.
And annoying.
Mainly the latter.
2643149It's not like I share a deep loathing for him, his family and his unborn children, but he just is NOT what I like in a character hehe I suppose that is the point
2643743
Yeah, pretty much.
I really wish you other writers would learn the difference between killing and murder. I was pleased that you used it right the first time because for Arrell it was self defense and was matching lethal force with lethal force, but the whole "I won't become a monster" thing made me rather disappointed.
2645109 The point here is that Arrell knows what he's doing is self-defense rather than outright murder, but it's getting easier for him nonetheless, and he's afraid he'll start performing the latter. I might add a bit of dialogue to clarify that, since the second half of the chapter was kind of rushed.
2646693
Aha, now I understand. Thank you for the clarification.
"For the record, these "crossover with non-canon story" chapters are still canon to my story."
Ohhh, man, that's going to be hard to deal with in the timeline. Fudgesicles.
2686232 There will be no Arrell-False shipping in this story. In fact, if there's going to be any shipping at all, it likely won't involve Arrell. Not for a while at least.
2686265
Boooooooo, Arrell and False are great together. It's an incredibly obvious tsun-tsun attitude on False's side. And you've even got a love triangle going with Asylum, who cares so much for him.
I support False x Arrell shipping. BEST SHIP BEST SHIP!
2686454 Haha, no.
Though I will admit that was actually a plan at one point. Scrapped quickly though.
2686508
That's probably why I get that feeling.You were writing like that originally and so i caught that vibe and it never really went away. i'll just have to make a bad fanfic of a fanfic to get my fav ship. that's how that works, right?
2750441 You can write things like that without making them dialogue. If you just say "He said a hello to me before walking away", it's technically correct; since you're saying it's a hello, that makes it more of an ambiguous greeting. He could have said "hi", "howdy", "heya", or "wassup homie", but it could still be classified as just "a hello". It's like saying "He told me the story" or "He gave me an answer".